Bracero means “manual laborer” in Spanish; in The Circuit, the term specifically refers to a worker who has come from Mexico to the United States to work as a farm laborer under the Bracero Program. The Bracero Program was a diplomatic agreement made in 1942 between Mexico and the United States, which allowed Mexican citizens to come into the U.S. temporarily to work on farms. The workers were guaranteed a minimum wage and decent living conditions in exchange for their labor. However, the Bracero Program had some flaws that made it unpopular. The farmers and laborers disliked the bureaucracy and extensive paperwork they had to file as part of the program, while the governments of Mexico and the United States believed that it led to an increase in illegal immigration since some braceros didn’t return to their home country. In The Circuit, Jiménez shows that braceros were also mistreated and cheated by the labor contractors who arranged for their stay in the United States. Since the Bracero Program was riddled with problems, it was terminated in 1964.
Bracero Quotes in The Circuit
The The Circuit quotes below are all either spoken by Bracero or refer to Bracero. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Learning the Game
Quotes
The contratista walked up to Gabriel and yelled in his face, “Well this isn’t your country, idiot! You either do what I say or I’ll have you fired!”
“Don’t do that, please,” Gabriel said. “I have a family to feed.”
“I don’t give a damn about your family!” the contratista replied, grabbing Gabriel by the shirt collar and pushing him. […] As he hit the ground, the contratista kicked him in the side with the tip of his boot. Gabriel sprung up and, with both hands clenched, lunged at the contratista. White as a ghost, Diaz quickly jumped back. [...]
I felt scared. I had not seen men fight before. My mouth felt dry and my hands and legs began to shake.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Circuit LitChart as a printable PDF.
Bracero Term Timeline in The Circuit
The timeline below shows where the term Bracero appears in The Circuit. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Circuit
...and the peak of the strawberry season has already passed. The farm workers—most of them braceros—are not picking as many strawberries as they had picked in June and July. As the...
(full context)
Learning the Game
...of the truck to get down. Papá explains to Francisco that Mr. Diaz runs the bracero camp for the strawberry farm, and his passenger must be one of the braceros.
(full context)
Ito, the sharecropper, introduces Gabriel, the bracero, to the other workers. Gabriel seems to be barely older than Roberto. His clothes are...
(full context)
